Needless to say these ramblings are personal reflections and do not in any way represent official policy of the Fédération Protestante de France, my employer, nor of the churches I'm a minister of, the United Reformed Church and the Eglise Réformée de France.

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Monday, 19 July 2010

An attempt at living with ambiguity – sermon by Jane StranzText: Matthew 5 1-12

At times of particular personal distressAt times when I seek structure and disciplineAt times when I want the comfort of the familiar

I read the Beatitudes

I find there neither easy consolation nor cheap graceNo hard and fast truthBut I do find simple yet complex spiritual poetryAnd the ambiguous outline of the faith I seek to professHere are words which move me powerfullyYet I would not claim to fully comprehend them, to understand their secretA triumph of liminal, ambiguous faithOr perhaps not even a triumph at allbut just strength in weakness and contradiction

So this morning as I invite you to reflect on the messy, complex contradictory nature of lifeAnd think about how you find meaning, consolation, structure and comfort in the face of all of that

And to do that I invite you to come with me to the beach - after all it's holiday time and I realised that it’s the perfect place to go to experience ambiguity and liminality

At the beach that which is seemingly hard - the rock - meets that which is seemingly soft - the waterThere we discover the power of the soft seaTurning rock to sandThe permanence of cliffs which fall into the oceanEven the tides are not at the same time every dayDon’t go to the beach if you want things to stay putThe open sky changes colour and contourThe wind bites or kisses our facesThe beach is a raw place, almost like a desertIt’s a place of shifting sands, dunes and landscapes, of permanent impermanenceYet it is also a deeply fertile placeSince the dawn of humanity coastlines have been places where people have settled to harvest what the land and ocean produce together.In our modern time the beach is also a place of recreation and relaxationOf barbecues and volley ball

In many monastic communities and in many part of what we call the modern new monasticismIt is in the middle of the day, at the heart of work and life that the beatitudes are prayedAn affirmation that spiritual truth needs to be sought not in cathedrals of purity but in the ambiguous and sometimes terrible grind of daily life.

The beatitudes are not a prayer for fundamentalist people of faithThey are a call to people to live out their faithOne of the versions of the Beatitudes that I particularly enjoy reading is the French translation by André Chouraqui who is Jewish – instead of Blessed he translates the Greek Makarios as “En marche”.It took Archbishop Elias Chacour – a Palestinian Christian – to explain to me that Chouraqui’s Jewish translation into French is actually closer to the Aramaic, Hebrew term "ashreï" that Jesus would have used rather than the Greek "makarioï" which in French or English is often rendered as happy or blessed. But "ashreï" has rather the meaning get up or get going, debout or en marche in French.Ah … the ambiguity of a Palestinian Christian understanding a French Jewish translation of the Bible more deeply than so many others…

The Beatitudes particularly at this reflective holiday time can help us develop an engaged spirituality of the threshold, of the in-between, of the ambiguousAn engaged spirituality of infinite patience which tries to learn to live with incoherence.

Theologians haves different ways of talking about living in this ambiguous place of the thresholdJürgen Ebach – whose name I only realize now is actually an anagram of beach – calls one of his books:Remembered future and a hoped for past„Erinnerte Zukunft and erhoffte Vergangeheit“The threshold is the ambiguous place we look back from and forwards fromThe past will always be part of the future and strangely the future is also part of the past

As we seek to practise an engaged spirituality of the thresholdthe Beatitudes help us to “set out” into the ambiguity of life, to be blessed and become blessedAs we reflect on the threshold and the beachIt is not all about finding resources from within ourselvesWe are not aloneChrist himself is waiting for us at the beach – even if it is a lakeside rather than an ocean beach - inviting us to a barbecue of bread and fish. Accompanying us into the further ambiguity of our lives.

After all, who is the Risen One other than ambiguous, unambiguous truth and compassion?

Blessed are those who dare to live the ambiguity of faithBlessed are those who realize that to trust means to riskBlessed are those who fail and yet still seek to go forwards.

And I end these half thought out reflections on ambiguity with part of a poem by the Irish Roman Catholic theologian, John O’Donohue

The Inner History of a Day (excerpt)

We seldom notice how each day is holy placeWhere the eucharist of the ordinary happens,Transforming our broken fragmentsInto an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presidesThat is more gracious than the smallnessThat fuels us with fear and force,A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanksFor being betrothed to the unknownAnd for the secret workThrough which the mind of the dayAnd the wisdom of the soul become one

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About Me

Jane

My name is Jane Stranz. I was born and brought up in Britain and am an ordained minister of the United Reformed Church, a small non-conformist church. For over 10 years I worked as a parish minister in the Eglise Réformée de France in Dunkerque, Chambéry and Ferney-Voltaire. Fom July 2002 to October 2011 I led the language service of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. Currently I'm working on a two year mission on ecumenical relations, inter-religious dialogue and inter-cultural ministry with the Fédération Protestante de France based in Paris. It's going to be exciting and a steep learning curve. I'm married to Stephen Brown a journalist, researcher and theologian who works at Gobethics.net. Over the next two years we'll see how we manage a commuting marriage between Paris and Ferney Voltaire. Since 1999 I've been living with multiple sclerosis, sounds rather noble but really means I just live in denial and inject interferon b three times a week and count myself very lucky to live in a country with a great health care system.